Thursday, 1 November 2012

Cutthroat Eel

Cutthroat Eel

The dive site Thursday was a relatively shallow one for this mission
(~250 m) but one that has been suspected to have species characteristic
of greater depths. This may be explained by extremely cold water at this
site — perhaps from upwelling of colder waters from deeper areas nearby
— although no one knows for sure. Indeed, the ROV recorded deep-water
species such as Lophelia corals and several Cutthroat Eels. The eels
were spotted near some coral and were moving about in their
characteristic sinuous swimming motion, staying near the corals that
were gently waving in the current. The scientists decided to collect
them as we had not yet collected any fish on this mission. The method
chosen to collect these slender fish was to use the ROV’s suction hose
(aka slurp gun).